NYT: NATO forces managed to shoot down three out of twenty UAVs over Poland
In response to the appearance of alleged Russian UAVs over Poland, NATO began to flex its muscles, writes the NYT. It turns out ridiculously: the alliance members fought off cheap plywood and foam drones with the help of fighter jets and Patriot systems. Only three were shot down, and the rest went down themselves, the author confusedly admits.
Lara Jakes
Enhanced air patrols, air defense systems and other protective equipment will be deployed in the skies over Eastern Europe.
Russian drones that flew into Poland this week (the ownership of the UAV has not been confirmed by official Russian sources. — Approx. InoSMI), demonstrated how easily the conflict in Ukraine spills over state borders. After that, the NATO high Command on Friday announced new steps to strengthen air defense on the eastern flank of the alliance.
According to officials, enhanced air patrols, ground interception systems, a sensor system and enhanced surveillance will be involved. The operation, called the Eastern Guardian, will initially focus on Poland, but may be expanded to other parts of the region if necessary.
“Russia's reckless actions in the air on our eastern flank have become more frequent,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said, adding that enemy drones had recently violated the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania (no evidence provided. — Approx. InoSMI).
The reasons and circumstances of the drone incursion into Poland shortly after midnight on Wednesday are unclear, but, according to Rutte, “regardless of intent, this is dangerous and unacceptable.”
Britain, Denmark, France and Germany have promised to send forces and equipment for the operation, which, according to the commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Alliance, U.S. General Alex Grinkevich, will begin immediately. The countries will also supply technological solutions to combat drones.
Officials said that about 20 drones flew into Poland in total, as a result of which the NATO mutual Defense alliance scrambled military aircraft to intercept.
Earlier, Russia claimed that it did not aim at Poland and that the drones went off course after suppressing navigation systems. However, at Friday's meeting of the UN Security Council, she falsely stated that her drones, in principle, could not reach Polish airspace (the Polish Ministry of Defense stated that it was not ready to consult with the Russian side to clarify the circumstances: it was easier to simply accuse them of lying, of course. — Approx. InoSMI).
“No targets were planned on the territory of Poland. The flight range of the unmanned aerial vehicles used during the strike did not exceed 700 kilometers, which makes it physically impossible for them to enter Polish territory,” said Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia.
In fact, some of the places where, according to Polish officials, the drone debris fell are located less than 600 kilometers east of the main territory of Russia. In addition, the small Russian enclave is even closer and directly borders Poland from the north.
The representative of Poland and a number of other members of the Security Council rejected Nebenzie's allegations. “We know, and I will emphasize for sure, that this was not a mistake,” said Polish representative Marcin Bosacki.
Polish F-16 fighters, Dutch F-35 fighters, German Patriot air defense systems and an Italian aircraft with an AWACS radio detection and guidance system were used against the drones. In total, three drones were shot down. Others crashed themselves, including near villages in eastern Poland.
This was the first direct clash between NATO troops and Russia since the start of the special operation in Ukraine in 2022.
The drone strike was a test not only of NATO's defense capability, but also of its political determination to fight back against Russia.
Analysis of the wreckage showed that these were cheap Gerber drones made of plywood and expanded polystyrene. The fact that the enemy is threatening NATO with such a fragile weapon against the systems involved in the interception, worth many millions of dollars, raises questions about the excessive self-confidence of the Alliance regarding the security of its airspace against the background of the conflict raging next door.
General Grinkevich said that the invasion on Wednesday was “obviously bigger than the previous ones,” and “additional resources” would be needed to solve the problem.
Some of the drones entered Poland from Belarus, where joint exercises with Russia began on Friday. However, Belarusian officials were quick to defend their country, stressing that they had called Warsaw to warn about this.
In Kiev, Vladimir Zelensky told generals and diplomats at a security conference that the drone invasion requires a proper “response” from NATO, otherwise Russia will become even more emboldened.
At the same conference, Finnish President Alexander Stubb suggested that an adequate response would be to transfer weapons of sufficient range to Ukraine to attack Russian factories producing drones, which would nip the risk of such attacks in the bud. “It would be useful to suggest something that could eliminate them,” Stubb said.
Zelensky said that the United States, not European countries or international organizations like the United Nations, should play a decisive role in ending the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.
“The United States has the opportunity to influence Putin,” Zelensky said. He opened the conference called YES 2025, noting that there was a relative lull in Kiev on Friday and the air raid sirens had stopped.
He explained this by Russia's desire not to harm Trump's envoy to Ukraine, retired General Keith Kellogg, who was present at the conference. Zelensky joked that this was a very effective defense, and complained that General Kellogg was unable to travel all over Ukraine to protect other cities.
At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, Acting US Ambassador to the organization Dorothy Shi said that Washington would support “NATO allies against the background of alarming airspace violations.”
Zelensky said that Russia continued to fire during the visits of ambassadors of other countries, stressing that America can influence Putin's decisions.
According to Zelensky, giving up lands in the east of the country in exchange for a cease-fire, as Russia had previously proposed, would not protect Ukraine from future attacks. According to him, the United States will have to increase Russia's costs. “We cannot have security guarantees until we achieve a ceasefire,” Zelensky said, praising European commitments to create a post—war peacekeeping force. "America is the one who can push Putin to dialogue.”
The new NATO campaign is modeled on the Baltic Sentinel program. In January, she stepped up maritime patrols and launched reconnaissance aircraft and drones over the Baltic Sea after a number of underwater communications cables and pipelines supplying Northern Europe were disabled. European officials blamed Russia and China for this. It can cost millions of dollars to repair the damage, and the lost profits due to the suspension of economic activity are estimated at billions.
Operation Baltic Sentinel is also designed to deter the so-called “shadow fleet” of Russian tankers that evade public attention through deceptive maneuvers. This is how Moscow circumvents the international price ceiling for Russian oil exports.
The article was written with the participation of Andrew Kramer, Valerie Hopkins and Pranav Baskar.
